The present invention relates to a protective housing for a cable, and particularly but not exclusively to such a housing for protecting joints between cables from a hostile environment.
It is known in the art to provide a connector housing which completely surrounds a stripped cable end and to fill the housing with gel or grease to protect the connection. Examples of such protective housings are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,795,857, 4,883,431, 5,059,748, 6,162,088 and EP-A-0253670. However, such arrangements potentially suffer from under- or overfilling. If under-filled, there will be gas voids within the filling medium. These cause the housing to xe2x80x98pumpxe2x80x99 elements from the hostile environment into the housing due to temperature cycling of the housing containing the joint. If the elements include moisture, its expansion on freezing can degrade the integrity of the filling. If overfilled, filling compound is expressed outside the housing. This is undesirable as it attracts dirt and the like.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a device for protecting an end of an electrical cable having an outer sheath and at least one core, comprising a cell having a first opening for receiving a part of the electrical cable including the sheath, a second opening for receiving a part of the electrical cable from which the sheath has been removed, such that an end of the sheath is positioned within the cell, and means for introducing a sealant into the cell so as to seal the end of the sheath. This arrangement provides a seal substantially preventing fluids from entering the sheath. Fluids would otherwise enter the sheath and move by capillary action along the cable, potentially causing problems at the other end, such as short-circuiting electronics, penetrating resins, attacking metals and/or other deleterious effects.
Preferably, the electrical cable has a plurality of cores and the cell is provided with a corresponding plurality of said second openings. The sealant seals the interstices between the cores and prevents the ingress of fluids in a hostile environment.
Preferably, the means for introducing the sealant comprises a piston moveable in a cylinder containing the sealant so as to introduce the sealant into the cell. Preferably, the cell forms an end portion of the cylinder.
Preferably, the cell is contained within a housing for housing a connection between the electrical cable and one or more further electrical cables. Preferably, the housing includes one or more further cells for protecting the respective further cables.
Preferably, the housing is provided in at least two parts so that the cable can be positioned within the cell before the at least two parts are assembled together. Preferably, one of the parts carries the means for introducing the sealant and another of the parts carries the part of the cell within which the cable can be positioned.